Creating a neighbourhood plan for Soho, London

London and the Creative Industries Event: discussing the future of the creative industries

On 22 February 2018, Plan for Soho attended a special event organised by one of the city’s leading urban planning agencies, Publica, discussing critical issues facing the future of the creative industries in London.

Soho’s creativity has been consistently voted across our public consultation surveys as the top issue for our neighbourhood plan to address. With this in mind, we were keen to hear more about challenges facing the creative sector across London and ideas on how to resolve them. Publica are additionally providing excellent advice and guidance on the development of our neighbourhood plan and have conducted previous work exploring Soho’s public realm for clients including TfL and Westminster Council.

To kick off with we heard from Justine Simons ( the Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries) on how across the past decade London has lost:

35% of its artists’ studios,

40% of its music venues,

25% of its pubs,

half of its nightclubs,

58% of its LGBTQ venues.

The event highlighted how in the new London Plan, culture and creativity is a key issue – the public consultation closes on March 2nd – there is still time for your to comment! Visit the London Plan section on the GLA website

The Mayor of London’s Deputy Mayor for Culture made the case for the socio-economic value that culture brings to cities – it is no longer just a ‘nice to have. ‘ Not only are the creative industries the second largest employer in London, but they play a key role in creating London’s USP, in creating a competitive edge for London.

The event marked the release of Place, Spaces, Work: The Creative Industries in London, a new publication published by Publica with a public exhibition of the maps and drawings from the publication that highlight the conditions that have allowed the creative industries to thrive at the centre and elsewhere in the city open from 23 February 2018 to 2 March 2018 at Publica’s offices in Clerkenwell – full details here